Brainwash
by Sazuka57
Summary: Ike is bored, so he and Pikachu decide to harass Link.


**Brainwash**

Ike was bored. At first, he was very, very excited to be here at the Smash Mansion, and now he was _bored_.

Bored, and reading a book.

Now, he had never read many books before. He was much too used being on the battlefield with a sword in his hand. And although he was the leader of the Greil Mercenaries, he was not the strategist; Soren was. Thus, it was Soren reading the book and being the bookworm while he was out sparring or chugging water buckets or grounded or trying to sort some problem out or something or the other that never, ever involved books.

And now he was reading a book. On the couch in the library.

Marth had picked out the book for him, so it wasn't a boring book (Marth was good at picking out books to suit different people). It was about a war with an evil dragon queen who was trying to destroy all of mankind and the heroes—who were the oddest bunch of semi-misfits—were trying to save the world because they were caught up in the events and really didn't have much of a choice. He liked it and felt that he was able to sympathize with the characters. Right now he was at the second part of the trilogy, where this old mage is attacking a bunch of dragon riders and did not know that it was actually his comrades in disguise. Ike was kind of looking forward to reading that part, but his eyes were really starting to hurt. He's been sitting there and reading five hours straight. Now, he was pretty new at this, but he knew that he should stop right now, because when the words started swimming and jumping and started acting like Game and Watch, that wasn't a good sign. So he put the book down and blinked a few times. He noticed that really, everything seemed to be swimming around. So he closed his eyes and rested his head back on the couch, hoping it'll clear his brain up.

He was sitting like that for a while when he felt a shifting next to him on the couch. He didn't say anything; it's not like he could have. Anyone was allowed to sit on this couch at any time they wanted as long as they kept quiet and were reading a book of some sort (the librarian was strict about that). He did open his eyes to look, though.

It was Pikachu. The little mouse Pokémon was sitting there on the couch, looking at him expectantly. Ike figured that it was a smart mouse, because it had brought what looked like a Pokémon story with him to fool the librarian (there were other things, but they didn't count at the moment). It was the expectant look on Pikachu's face that was bothering Ike though; if the mouse was so smart, then he wasn't confusing him with someone else, was he?

He looked at the mouse and sighed, "You know by now that I'm not Marth, right?"

"Pikachu." The mouse replied, nodding. Ike sighed; at least the mouse finally was able to tell the difference. Because of the uncanny similarities between the Marth and Ike, the confusion between which was who has been there since the beginning. While he, Marth, and Link became fast friends, everyone else…well, whoever didn't have a problem telling them apart tended to stay away from him, and whoever couldn't tell them apart usually guessed that he was Marth. This had irked and frustrated Ike to the point of sulking in his room, but the whole situation dissipated after a month or so. The Smashers have now warmed up to him, and he had a lot more interaction with almost everyone (_Almost_ being the keyword, because gaining the attention of Bowser or Ganondorf was not a good thing). Yet some of the confusion still remained. At one point, to purposely add onto the confusion, Fox and Falco had decided to dub the two of them the Blunette twins. It worked—no one understood the reference to start with, but…

But...well, nonetheless. The mouse wanted something.

"…I supposed you want me to pet you?" Ike asked warily. Irking the mouse was not a bright idea—he knew what it was like being at the end of a thunder attack (whether from Soren or Pikachu) quite well. But the mouse nodded and settled in his lap, still looking at him expectantly.

Now came the tricky part: how to pet the mouse. Marth had told him at one point that if he pets Pikachu wrong, he was in for a shock (literally). He extended his hand out, but hesitated. "Warn me if I'm about to pet you wrong. I don't want to get shocked."

Pikachu nodded, and Ike cautiously petted the mouse on the head. Upon hearing Pikachu's squeal of appreciation, he gained confidence in his actions and pet the mouse properly.

"Pikaa~!" Pikachu expressed his happiness. Ike smiled; this was nice, although…he _was_ curious. Marth and Red (the Pokémon Trainer) told him a lot about Pokémon, and he knew that they spoke their own language…curiosity killed the cat, he wanted to know.

"Err…Pikachu?" he started, and the mouse looked at him, "How would you say my name in your…err, language?"

He knew the Pokémon was going to think him weird, but he really wanted to know. And he was bored—that was always a good excuse…

"Piiika!" Pikachu replied.

"Err…excuse me?" Ike was puzzled.

"Piiika! Pikachu!"

"Piiika? That's my name?"

"Pikachu." The mouse nodded.

"Piiika. Piiika!...I like that! And agreeing with another is 'Pikachu.'"

"Pikachu." Pikachu replied, nodding again.

"…Do I have to nod every time I agree with someone?"

"Pii." Pikachu shook his head no. So, ok, Ike was thinking this might be easy. 'Pii' meant no, 'Pikachu' meant yes, and he was 'Piiika.' So…what about other things? Like Marth's name—or better yet, Link's. He learned early on that Link didn't get along with Pikachu—never did—and thus Pikachu liked to bug him.

Well, if he was going to talk Pikachu, he might was well act Pikachu. So Link and Marth it is.

"Pikachu, how do you say Marth's name?"

"Kachu."

"So Marth's Kachu….What about Link?"

"Pipika!" Ah, the Pokemon was picking up on his line of thought. _Very_ smart mouse. Plus 20 respect points.

"Ok. So I'm Piika, you're Pikachu, Marth's Kachu, and Link's Pipika."

"Pikachu."

"That's a yes…So you want to go bug Link?"

"Pika~!" The Pokemon squealed enthusiastically.

"So let's go!" Ike got up and practically ran out of the room, only to stop. "Oh….wait."

He went back to his seat and picked up his book with the intention of checking it out. Pikachu took the opportunity to jump onto his head. Ike found that he didn't mind—the mouse was cute, and it was currently his mentor…heh, taking lessons from a mouse. Boyd would laugh if he was here (Titania would smack him, but he didn't want to think about that unpleasant scenario).

After checking the book out and tucking it away safely in his room, he and Pikachu began their search for Link. They stopped Lucario—who was the only smasher they've seen up until now—and questioned him. He used his psychic—err…_Aura_ powers (Ike didn't see the difference; Aura was practically the same as psychic, but the Pokemon seemed to take offense about it) Lucario located Link in the Commons room with Marth, but inquired as to why. After answering Lucario and getting a-best-of-luck reply, Ike thanked him and proceeded to learn his name in Pikachu tongue (Pi-Ka-Chu…so this _was_ starting to get a bit more difficult) then Ike skipped the whole way to the Commons. He passed Fox at one point, who gave him a strange look. He figured that he must have looked weird, skipping uncharacteristically down the hall with Pikachu on his head.

…Whatever. He was having fun. And it was better than being bored.

It took them a while to get to the Commons because Ike had to actually stop skipping to turn (he fell over twice while trying to stop), but once there, Ike (with his mentor Pikachu on his head) peeked in to look at the surroundings. Marth was seated comfortably on the couch reading a book (the title was _Spyware Technology_…say what?) while Link was standing near the window trying to persuade Marth to leave his book and come Brawl with him against Ganondorf or Game & Watch. _Perfect_.

Ike ran forward, only to skid to a stop in front of Link as he and Pikachu greeted him, "Pipika!"

Link arched an eyebrow, "Say what?"

"Pipika! Pikachu pii pika ka chu piii!" Both Pikachu and Ike replied, and Marth peeked over his book to look at them.

Link stepped back, "Say _what_?"

"Pipikaaa!" The two replied. Truthfully, Ike had no idea how he was actually saying the same words as the mouse while understanding their meaning, but he wasn't going to ask just yet. He wanted to see Link freak out.

"Ike, cut that out!"

"Pii!" Ike shook his head. Pikachu, thankfully, had a good grip and didn't fall out. "Pi pii pika Pikachu ka!"

"Cut it out Ike!"

"Pii!" Ike shook his head again. He took a step towards Link.

"Why not?" Link took a few more steps back.

"Pikachu pi ka pika pipipikachu, Pi pii pika Pikachu ka!"

"…Get off of his head, mouse!"

"PII!" Both Ike and Pikachu yelled. This startled Link and he took a few more steps back, only to stumble over the (extra large) coffee table at the side of the couch and fall. Ike and Pikachu showed no mercy, and climbed on the table to stare down at Link. Marth was still peeking over his book.

"Stop iiiiiitttt!" Link whined.

"Pii ka."

"…" Link was silent, with a contemplative look on his face, "This is some form of just desserts, isn't it? I promise I won't pick on you for the rest of the day."

"Kapi ka?" Pikachu and Ike inquired.

"Err…the week?" Link was now unsure that this was going to work. Ike and Pikachu laughed.

"Kaa."

"More? Come on! That's not fair!" Again, Ike and Pikachu laughed. Link looked like a little kid, all upset that his fun was being taken away.

"Kaa!"

"Uhm…" Link was looking around now. Ike figured that he was looking for an escape route. So he leaned over the table to stare at Link up close. Link looked close to miserable.

"Kapi kaa pikaka chu."

"Uhm….Please stop?"

"Pii," Ike shook his head again. He had to hand it to Pikachu, that mouse was still on his head.

"Pretty Please? I'll leave you alone forever?"

"Pikachu…pika! Pii pika chuuu." Ike smiled, and didn't move. Link scrambled backwards into the wall in attempts to get away. Ike didn't want Link to run off, so he cornered him. Link looked trapped and suddenly angry.

"Okay! Enough with the joke! Cut it out or I'll cut your heads off!"

"Pika piika chuu kachuu." Ike pointed over Link's shoulder, to the spot where Master Sword was supposed to be. Link looked over his shoulder.

"…oh." He looked helpless, "Fine. You win. Now stop it."

"Pii!" Ike shook his head again.

"But! You win! That's enough!"

"Pii!" Ike shook his head, "Pika chuu pikachu!"

"But! But!"

"Pii ka." They replied. Link looked around again, and spotted Marth. He looked as though he had just seen Marth for the first time.

"Marth? A little help here?" Link pleaded. Marth, who had been paying attention to the whole incident, put his book down and patted a spot next to him, "Come here, Pikachu."

"Pika!" Pikachu instantly jumped off of Ike's head and ran towards Marth. As soon as he reached Marth, he was immediately petted and pleasantly distracted by the young royal. "Pika~!"

Ike, who was feeling lightheaded now that there was no heavy Pikachu on his head, stood up and sighed. Well, fun time was over. What now? He didn't really want to apologize.

It took Link a little while to regain his composure and stand up, and even longer to speak to Ike. When he did speak, however, his tone was that of a pleasant one. "Ike?"

"…Yeah?" Link's tone unnerved him. Wasn't he supposed to be angry?

"Do you have anything to do right now?"

"No. I was reading a book, though…" Ike felt like he was the one trapped, and even a book was better than Link's wrath. How cowardly.

"Oh, good. You want to Brawl?"

"Sure!" Ike replied enthusiastically.

"Oh, good. I feel like smashing your face in."

"Oh, okay. I'll beat you though."

"Yeah right." Link grabbed Ike's arm and proceeded to drag him towards the stages. Curious, Pikachu dashed after Link and Ike, leaving Marth to himself.

A few minutes later, Lucario entered the room and proceeded to set up the chess board. He then motioned to Marth in inquiry if he would like to join him for a game. Smiling, Marth put the book down and moved to the other side of the chess board. The game played quietly, until they heard a loud "PIIKA!" down the hall. Marth laughed and said to Lucario, "You enjoyed messing with those three's heads, didn't you, Lucario?"

Lucario's only response was to checkmate Marth.


End file.
